The Kybalion - Hermetic Philosophy

The Kybalion is a book written by three anonymous authors in the early 1900s. It was originally published as a pamphlet and later released as a full-length book. The Kybalion is considered to be one of the most influential works on Hermetic philosophy, which combines elements of spirituality, mysticism, alchemy and ancient wisdom with modern science and psychology. 

At its core, The Kybalion focuses on seven principles that are said to govern all aspects of life:

Mentalism — the belief that everything has an underlying mental cause

Correspondence — the idea that there are patterns between physical objects or phenomena

Vibration — all matter vibrates at different frequencies

Polarity — opposite forces create balance in nature

Rhythm — things go through cycles over time

Cause and Effect — every action has an equal reaction

Gender — male & female energies exist within each person

 

These principles form the foundation for understanding how energy works in our lives—not just physically but spiritually too. 

The ideas presented in The Kybalion have been embraced by many spiritual seekers who use them to gain greater insight into their own personal growth journey as well as understand more deeply how they can interact with their environment around them from both physical and metaphysical perspectives. Ultimately it’s up to each individual reader whether or not they find value in this work; however those who do may find themselves better equipped for navigating life’s challenges while also tapping into higher levels of consciousness than ever before!

Difficult book to read, my takeaways.

 "The Principles of Truth are Seven; he who knows these, understandingly, possesses the Magic Key before whose touch all the Doors of the Temple fly open."--The Kybalion.

The Seven Hermetic Principles, upon which the entire Hermetic Philosophy is based, are as follows:

 

   1. The Principle of Mentalism.

   2. The Principle of Correspondence.

   3. The Principle of Vibration.

   4. The Principle of Polarity.

   5. The Principle of Rhythm.

   6. The Principle of Cause and Effect.

   7. The Principle of Gender.

Takeaways from Wake Up! You're Alive

 "Wake Up! You're Alive" is a self-help book by Arnold Fox and Barry Fox that was first published in 1978. The book provides practical advice for people who are struggling with stress, anxiety, and other negative emotions. It aims to help readers realize their full potential and live a more fulfilling life.

The book is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on understanding the causes of stress and anxiety. The authors explain how negative thinking patterns can lead to these emotions and offer tips for changing these patterns.

The second part of the book is about taking action to improve your life. The authors offer advice on setting goals, managing time, and improving relationships. They also provide tips for maintaining good physical and mental health.

The final part of the book is about achieving happiness and success. The authors discuss the importance of having a positive attitude and offer tips for staying motivated and overcoming obstacles. They also provide exercises for developing self-awareness and self-confidence.

The books touches the some of the concepts of famous law i.e. Law of Attraction with explanation, however name of this law is not mentioned in the book.

Also explains five cardinal virtues that everyone must embrace if they are to enjoy health and success in life:

1. Enthusiasm

2. Belief

3. Love

4. Forgiveness

5. Perseverance

Overall, "Wake Up! You're Alive" is a practical guide for anyone who wants to improve their quality of life. The book is filled with useful tips and exercises that can help readers overcome negative thinking patterns and achieve their goals.

If you like the writings of Napoleon Hill, Norman Vincent Peale, Joseph Murphy etc. authors of those era, you are surely going to love this book.

~ Few takeaways has been generated from ChatGPT

Live Your Life The Way You Want It To Be

 

“If you have a talent, put it to some use. It is something that some of us are born with, or even something that we might discover and acquire along the way. I think most of you have it in some form or the other." - Ruskin Bond

Be Practical in your approach, keep doing good stuffs in your life and follow your routine.

“Grow something, my friend. Even if it’s only a succulent or a feathering fern. Find some corner of your room or balcony or window ledge where there’s a little sun, good light and warmth. Plant a seed or cutting, watch it grow, watch it flower.” This sounds easy and doable, for people of all ages. Why does he recommend it? According to him, “You will have taken a small part in God’s creation, and the rewards will be greater than the effort you have made”
He urges readers to become “one of nature’s allies, not one of her enemies”.

Be natural, don't over complicate your life, Live Your Life The Way You Want To Live.

Thank you Ruskin Bond for writing such a wonderful book.

Building A Never Give Up Attitude

What separates the WINNER from the QUITTER?

What turns LOSERS into LEGENDS?

What transforms the MUNDANE into the MAGICAL?

What wipes GLOOM and sweeps life with GLORY and GUTS?

It is the attitude to never give up!

How to develop a Never Give Up Attitude 

The whole sentence is consist of 

Never – 5 words | Give – 4 Words | Up – 2 Words

Below are some of the suggested approaches you need to build a strong attitude.

• Dream - Like the Heart of our Body

Dreams are the foundation of a person’s life. Each human on Earth is endowed with talent. One must identify, embrace and feel proud of the talent they have. Consider it a gift not everyone has because each individual has different sets of skills and talents. You must have a dream, a goal that you want to achieve in life. Many times our dreams are in line with our talent. 

• Visualization - Like the Lungs of our Body

Lungs are responsible for supplying oxygen to the entire body. This oxygen is very important for the body to function. Similarly, visualization is important for your dreams. It acts as a pillar of your foundation.

• Affirmation - Like a Vein of our Body

Veins carry oxygenated blood from the heart to all body parts. It also carries deoxygenated blood from the body parts back to the heart. This is exactly how affirmation works. It helps to spread positivity and remove all the negativity you are surrounded by. Affirmation helps to chase one’s dreams.

• Plan - Like the Ribs of our Body

Prepare a Layout to take Actions that are Necessary

Visualizing the dream alone is not enough. This only ensures you are ready to take action. The next step is to plan. Planning is a very important process as it helps you move closer to your dreams. A plan acts as the sail of your ship. It makes sure you are sailing in the right direction and helps you towards it. By chalking down a path to reach your dreams, you are ensuring that you reach your destination within the stipulated time set by you. 

• Effort - Like the Spinal Cord of our Body

Efforts bridge the gap between dreams and reality. Putting in effort is really important as it helps us to realize our dreams into reality. Every time you put in the effort, you are closer to achieving what you really want.

• Focus - Like a Bone of our Body

Focusing is a significant and essential part of our attention and interest. The bones are dynamic organs and are responsible for the structure and shape of the body. Similarly, the focus is crucial for shaping and structuring our dreams. When you are focused, it is easier to remain concentrated in difficult times as well.

• Determination - Like a Muscle of our Body

Determination is one of the most valuable qualities that every successful person has. Muscles provide strength to the body and help us in movement. Muscles store everything in the form of glycogen. Similarly, determination provides strength to our dream. 

• Self-Motivation - Like the Liver of our Body

Motivation is not only required when we cannot achieve our dream but is also required when we are in the right direction. Without a healthy liver, it is very difficult for a person to live a healthy life. Without self-motivation, it is very difficult to make our dreams come true. 

• Persistence - Like the Kidney of our Body

If the kidneys do not function properly, there are chances we may land in trouble. If they stop working, we may even lose our life. Similarly, persistence helps us stay positive by eliminating negativity during difficult times. Our dream expires in the absence of persistence.

• Gratitude - Like the Brain of our Body

Gratitude is the quality of being thankful and showing appreciation for an act of kindness. It is a miracle. It turns impossible things into possibilities. Gratitude is the key ingredient to increasing the quality of our lives. 

• Celebration - Like Dopamine and Serotonin hormones in our Body

Though celebrations are an important quality of life, it is one of the most underestimated and under-utilized qualities in our mission to make our dream a reality. Celebrate your small achievements, Push yourself to do more, and reward yourself for significant accomplishments.

To build an attitude that is strong and unbreakable try to combine as many as possible characteristics described above. Sure a day will come when the impossible will be possible.

Thank you Dr. Hardik Joshi for sharing this through a must-read book.

Leaders Start With Why

The post is for aspiring leaders, leaders in progress, and leaders who want to transform from Good to Great.

Taken from the book by Simon Sinek, there are two types of leaders: 

> those who decide to manipulate to get to the end result.

> those who start with the end result in mind and let everything else naturally fall into place.

How they do it is by following a naturally occurring pattern Golden Circle: Why, How, and What.

Golden Circle

Why: Very few people or companies can clearly articulate why they do what they do. This isn’t about running a profitable company—that’s a result. Why is it all about your purpose? Why does your company exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care?

How: Some people and companies know how they do what they do. Whether you call them a "differentiating value proposition" or a "unique selling proposition," HOWs are often given to explain how something is different or better.

What: Every single company on the planet knows what they do. This is true no matter how big or small the company is, or no matter what industry they belong to. Everyone can easily describe the products or services their company sells or the job function they have within the company.

When we start with “Why”, we go from the inside out of the circle. “Why” is the reason to buy and the “Whats” merely represents the tangible products as proof of that belief. “Whats” are the reasons we can point to rationalize why we so much like a company over another.

The Biology of Golden Circle

Biology underpins The Golden Circle, per Sinek, because it follows the notion of biology by clarifying similarities to the way our brains function. The newest and outermost section of the brain (the neocortex) processes sensory information, higher-level reasoning, and communicating through language. This part of the brain also corresponds to the question of what.

The middle two sections deal with the limbic system, which gets into our feelings, memories, moods, and behavior. The limbic system addresses the questions of how and why humans behave the way we do. In other words. our feelings, memories, moods, and behavior controls a larger portion of our means for making decisions than does the neocortex.


Relationship between Golden Circle and Human Brain 

Apart from Golden Circle, please do a simple test for decision-making - Celery Test.
The celery test is a simple way of helping you make the right decisions.

The test goes like this: Imagine yourself at a dinner party and you have only great people giving you great advice on what you need for your business. Each one gives you his expert and documented point of view: You should want soymilk says one expert, chocolate cookies says another, pudding says a third, and celery cries out the last.
Once at a grocery store to get all this, could someone look at your groceries at the checkout line and immediately know what you're all about?
Oh, and the business you’re in is related to Health… If you're just purchasing the soymilk and celery, then yes.
Passing the celery test is about maintaining credibility and integrity day in and day out, constantly.
Passing the celery test is about saying what you do AND doing what you say, consistently.

Passing the celery test is about discipline.

Before starting any work a clear Why can really make a difference.

Stop Worrying And Start Living Happily

 

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living is a practical, common-sense bible filled with stories, case studies, and simple step-by-step guides to conquering worry, anxiety, and depression.

Keep Takeaways -

Focus on today

“Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.” – Thomas Carlyle

Thinking about what needs to be done in the future can lead to overwhelm and inaction. But if you focus on what you need to accomplish today, it’s much more doable. It will help you create the future you want, one day at a time.
A formula to follow -
“Frameworks for dealing with worry can be helpful, especially since worry destroys our ability to concentrate. Without being able to concentrate, not only do we feel worse, but we’re less effective.”

If you have a situation where you’re worried about failing, follow these three steps.
Step 1: Analyze a situation causing you to worry to determine the worst possible scenario if you fail.
Step 2: Accept the worst possible case scenario, if it is to happen.
Step 3: Focus on trying to improve the situation so that you end up with a better outcome than the worst case.
Why you should care about worry
“The greatest mistake physicians make is that they attempt to cure the body without attempting to cure the mind, yet the mind and body are one and should not be treated separately.” – Plato

Worry isn’t just something that makes you feel a little worse or makes it less likely that you can concentrate. It’s something that can lead to serious adverse health effects for your mind, body, and soul. These negative effects can cause much worse situations with your health than whatever it is that you’re worried about.

In short, worry is not worth the physical toll it can take on your body.

Techniques For Analyzing Worry
Understand the situation
Whenever you’re worried about something, you need to do three things:

Get the facts.
Analyze the facts.
Arrive at a decision – and act on that decision.
One simple framework for figuring this all out is to follow four lines of inquiry.

Write down what you’re worrying about (What am I worried about?)
Think about what you can do about it (What can I do about it?)
Decide on what to do (What are you going to do about it?)
Start carrying out the decision (When am I going to start doing it?)
This framework helps you get out of your head. It allows you to quickly understand what’s going on, what you can do about it, and to make a decision and start doing what you’ve decided.

Solving business problems
Similar to the framework above for analyzing any worry, you can use the following four questions to solve most of your worries about any business situation.

What’s the problem?
What is the cause of the problem?
What are all possible solutions to the problem?
What solution do you suggest?
Whenever you’re struggling in business, go through this framework. You’ll feel better and be clear on what you’re going to do to start actually solving the problem, instead of simply worrying about it.

Different Sections with Applicable Rule -

 
Fundamental Facts You Should Know About Worry
Rule 1: Live in day-tight compartments.
Rule 2: Identify and accept then mitigate the worst-case scenario.
Rule 3: Remember the high cost of worry.

Basic Techniques in Analysing Worry
Rule 4: Don’t make (or worry about) decisions without data.
Rule 5: Analyse the facts and make a decision.
Rule 6: Take action on your decision.
Rule 7: Break down the problem and solutions.

How to Break The Worry Habit Before It Breaks You
Rule 8: Be so busy you don’t have time to worry.
Rule 9: Don’t let trifles get you down.
Rule 10: Work out how (un)likely things really are.
Rule 11: Accept what can’t be changed.
Rule 12: Put a stop-loss order on anxiety.
Rule 13: Don’t worry about what’s done.

Seven Ways to Cultivate a Mental Attitude For Peace and Happiness
Rule 14: Fill your mind with happy thoughts.
Rule 15: Don’t waste time worrying about people you don’t like.
Rule 16: Don’t expect gratitude. (But cultivate it in yourself.)
Rule 17: Count the good things, and forget the bad ones.
Rule 18: Don’t waste energy envying others.
Rule 19: Make the best of unfortunate events.
Rule 20: Focus on making other people happy

The Golden Rule for Conquering Worry
Rule 21: Pray.

How to Keep From Worrying About Criticism
Rule 22: Recast unjust criticism as disguised compliments.
Rule 23: Have confidence in doing the best that you can.
Rule 24: Keep a record of and reflect on your foolishness.

Six Ways to Prevent Fatigue and Worry and Keep Your Energy and Spirits High
Rule 25: Rest before you get tired.
Rule 26: Learn to relax at work.
Rule 27: Learn to relax at home.
Rule 28: Develop good working habits.
Rule 29: Approach your work with enthusiasm.
Rule 30: Stop worrying about sleep.

How to Find the Kind of Work in Which You May Be Happy and Successful
Rule 31: Work a job you can be happy and successful in.

How to Lessen Your Financial Worries
Rule 32: Track where your money goes on paper.
Rule 33: Make a personalized budget.
Rule 34: Learn to get the most from your money.
Rule 35: Don’t spend more as you earn more.
Rule 36: Build good credit (in case you need it).
Rule 37: Buy insurance.
Rule 38: Pay life insurance out in installments.
Rule 39: Teach your children financial literacy.
Rule 40: Start a side-hustle (from your kitchen).
Rule 41: Never gamble.
Rule 42: Accept what can’t be changed.

Please read the book without any hesitation.

The Ups And Down In Life

The idea has been taken from the book Peaks and Valleys by Spencer Johnson, which contains a short parable that focuses on how to lead your life during the ups and down phase. In other words how to manage yourself while going through the good and bad times.

Ups and Down In Life

The story goes like this —

A young man lives unhappily in a valley. One day he meets an old man who lives on a mountain peak. At first, the young man doesn’t realize that he is talking to one of the most peaceful and successful people in the world. But in the course of further encounters and conversations, the young man comes to understand that he can apply the old man’s remarkable principles and practical tools to his own life to change it for the better.

Key takeaways -

Peaks And Valleys Are Connected in Two Ways:

> The Errors You Make In Today’s Good Times Create Tomorrow’s Bad Times.

> And The Wise Things You Do In Today’s Bad Times Create Tomorrow’s Good Times.

The secret is to truly appreciate and enjoy each time for what it is, while you are living it.

What’s the key to enjoying every situation in our life? Look for the lessons and be grateful for them.

In fact, gratitude is the key to happiness in any situation.

> Peaks Are Moments When You Appreciate What You Have.

> Valleys Are Moments When You Long For What Is Missing.

If you want to have fewer Valleys, avoid comparisons to others. The only comparison you should be making is your current self with your future self.

If you enjoy or appreciate what’s good about the moment, you feel more like you are at a Peak.

The Path Out Of The Valley Appears When You Choose To See Things Differently.

The Most Common Reason You Leave a Peak Too Soon is Arrogance.

The Most Common Reason You Stay in a Valley Too Long is Fear.

When you put your ego aside, you are more likely to leave a Valley sooner.

Always find the best way to get through a Valley begins with gratitude.

As per Bhagavad Gita, ‘Yadrccha-labha-santusto Dvandvatito Vimatsarah. ‘ Whatever is coming to you, you should have some level of contentment and with contentment comes gratitude. If you are discontent, how can you be grateful?

Avoid Believing Things Are Better Than They Really Are When You Are On A Peak — Arrogance masquerading as confidence.

Or Worse Than They Really Are When You Are In A Valley — Fear masquerading as comfort.

“Make Reality Your Friend”

A personal Peak is a triumph over fear. You create a Peak when you truly follow your vision. Your fear fades and you become more peaceful and successful.

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude”

If you have liked or read the book ‘Who Moved My Cheese’, you are definitely going to love this book.